The woods I turn are almost always from deciduous trees: those that have leaves. These include maple, white oak, madrone and black walnut. I also like to turn burl, which is the rootball of the tree. Maple trees often have burls growing at the base of the tree and sometimes at various places on the trunk. They look like bulbous growths on the side of the tree. It is not known exactly why the burls grow on the trunk. Some think it is in response to a stress of some kind: disease, or bug attacks. Whatever causes them, the results are spectacular. I would always rather turn the burl then the straight-grained wood.
Some of the pieces I do are from spalted wood. Spalting is the first step in the rotting process. When wood lays on the damp ground, bacteria and fungi start to digest the wood. The first signs in the wood are the black lines that appear randomly throughout the spalted area. We never know a piece will have any spalting until we cut it open, and it is always
a pleasant surprise. If the rotting process has continued too far the wood is punky: soft, almost like stiff oatmeal. It is too soft to turn and the wood goes to the fire pile. Maple and birch are the two woods most often found with spalting.
